1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of grating structures. More particularly, the present invention relates to subwavelength grating structures. Specifically, a preferred implementation of the present invention relates to subwavelength resonant grating structures that are embedded in a waveguide. The present invention thus relates to embedded optical gratings of the type that can be termed embedded.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Historically, subwavelength resonant grating structures have only been large planar surfaces..sup.(1-3) Current integrated narrowband optical filters are limited by their size in the density of devices that can be produced, their overall performance, and their ability to be actively altered for tuning and modulation purposes.
Within this application several publications are referenced by superscripts composed of arabic numerals within parentheses. Full citations for these, and other, publications may be found at the end of the specification immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of all these publications in their entireties are hereby expressly incorporated by reference into the present application for the purposes of indicating the background of the present invention and illustrating the state of the art.
The below-referenced U.S. Patent discloses embodiments that were satisfactory for the purposes for which they were intended. The entire contents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,680 are hereby expressly incorporated by reference into the present application.